这十大简单事，其实复杂到让你困惑

5 打哈欠

Yawning is a puzzling phenomenon. Even the simple act of talking about it is enough to make some people do it (some of you are probably doing it right now). There really is no other bodily function quite like it.

打哈欠是一个令人迷惑不解的现象。即使是仅仅谈论一下也足以使一些人打个哈欠（你们中的一些人也许现在正打哈欠呢）。真的没有什么其他的身体机能会像打哈欠一样具有传染性了。

Now, some of you reading this may be aware of the long-standing theory that the purpose of yawning is to keep us alert by forcing our bodies to take in an extra large gulp of oxygen. That makes sense, because we mostly yawn when we’re tired or bored, situations where an extra burst of energy would come in handy.

此刻，也许你们当中的一些人想到了一个由来已久的理论：打哈欠的目的是通过迫使我们的身体吸入一大口氧气来使我们保持清醒。这么说是有道理的，因为当我们感到疲倦和无聊时，往往都会打哈欠。在这种情况下一股能量会补充进身体，进而振奋我们的精神。

The thing is, experiments have conclusively disproven that theory over the years. In fact, there is no universally agreed upon theory for why we actually yawn, even though everyone does it. A commonly accepted theory is that yawning actually cools down the brain, because various experiments have shown that one of the few things to actually change in the body during a yawn is the temperature of the brain itself.

可事实是，这些年来，实验已经完全否定了这一理论。实际上，尽管每个人都会打哈欠，可关于我们打哈欠的原因仍没有普遍认同的理论。一种人们广为接受的理论称打哈欠事实上能使大脑的温度下降，因为各种各样的实验已经说明当人打哈欠时，人体为数不多的变化之一就是大脑自身温度的下降。

As for why yawning is contagious, no one knows that either.

至于打哈欠为什么会传染，也没有人知道原因。

4 Left And Right Have Been Confusing Philosophers For Years

4 “左”与“右”的问题已困扰哲学家们多年

How would you explain the concept of left and right to someone who had no idea what those words meant? Would you explain it in terms of your relative position to a well-known stationary landmark? Or maybe you’d think outside the box and refer to the rotation of the Earth or something comparably massive and unchanging. But what if you were talking to an alien whose planet rotated differently to our own, or one who didn’t have eyes? It’s a question that has been intriguing philosophers for years because, without an agreed upon point of reference, it’s incredibly difficult to define what left and right actually are.For example, consider the work of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who once said, “Let it be imagined that the first created thing were a human hand, then it must necessarily be either a right hand or a left hand.”

你会怎样向一个完全不明白单词“左”和“右”意思的人来解释“左”与“右”的概念呢？你会根据一个众所周知的固定地标来确定你的相对位置进而来解释吗？又或者你也许会跳出固有思维模式，利用地球的自转或某些体积较大，相对不容易变化的事物来解释？但如果你谈话的对象是个外星人，而他的星球的自转方式和地球很不同，又或者他根本没有眼睛，你又怎么办呢？很多年以来，这个问题一直使哲学家们感到困惑，因为如果没有一个商定的参照点，要定义什么是左，什么是右实际上是极其困难的。比如，想想德国科学家伊曼努尔•康德的著作，他曾经说，“假设上帝最先创造出来的是一只人手，那么这只手必定可能是右手，也可能是左手。”

However, with only one hand, it’s impossible to explain which hand it is without another one present. Think about it for a second—right and left hands are clearly very different from one another, but if you were to describe them, the descriptions would be literally identical because they’re the same. Only they aren’t because, as Kant himself put it, a left hand can’t fit into a right-handed glove, so there is a difference between them. However, said difference is practically impossible to put into words without the other hand being present.

可是，如果只有一只手，而没有另一只手的话，想要解释你所拥有的那只手是哪只手是不可能的。花一秒想一想—左手与右手显然是非常不同的。但如果你想用语言描绘它们，那么你的描绘将完全相同的，因为它们看上去是一样的。不过它们又是不同的，正如康德自己说的那样，左手是戴不上右手的手套的，因此它们之间是有不同之处的。然而，如果没有另一只手在，上述的不同是几乎不能用语言描绘的。

If you think we’re over-complicating this, we should point out that there is literally a 400-page book on the philosophy of right and left, aptly called The Philosophy Of Right And Left. That’s more pages than it took to work out 1+1=2.

如果你认为我们夸大了这一问题的复杂性，那我们应当指出，关于左和右的哲学还真有一本400多页的书，名字也很贴切，就叫《左与右的哲学》（The Philosophy Of Right And Left）这可比验证1+1=2所占的页数还要多。

3 We Enjoy Things For Reasons Other Than Enjoyment

3 我们喜欢某些事物是出于理性而非快乐

Enjoyment is a weird thing because it’s so subjective—for every person who loves a given food, song, or movie, there’s another person who adamantly hates it. You’d think that the reason we enjoy things is because it feels good in some way, but scientists have conclusively proven that that’s only half the story.

快乐是一件很奇怪的事，因为它太主观了—每个人都有自己的喜好，一个人喜欢的食物，歌曲和电影，另一个人却打死也不会喜欢。你会认为，我们喜欢某些事物是因为在某种程度上，我们会感到愉悦，但是科学家已经完全证实这只是事实的一半。

For example, people can be fooled into thinking they love a certain food or wine just by telling them it’s really expensive. The same can be said for objects—people will instinctively choose an expensive product over a cheaper one purely because of the price. Enjoyment is barely even a factor. In marketing, this is known as the “Chivas Regal effect,” named for the scotch of the same name which saw sales explode after they simply raised the price of their product.

比如，只要告诉人们某种食物或酒非常昂贵，他们就会上当，认为自己真的喜欢这种食物或酒。对于物品，这也同样适用—天性使然，人们会选择昂贵的而不是便宜的产品，这纯粹是由于价格的缘故。快乐甚至仅仅是一个因素。在营销中，这被称为“芝华士效应，”是根据同名威士忌酒来命名的—仅仅在该公司提高其产品价格之后，销售量就激增了。

To further illustrate the point, there’s a famous experiment where wine experts were fooled into thinking a cheap bottle of wine was an exceptional vintage just by switching the labels. Their enjoyment of the product wasn’t based on some deeply held love and appreciation of wine—it was based entirely on the fact that they were told it was good wine. Which, to be honest, is much easier.

为了进一步证明这一点，还有一个很著名的实验。在这个实验中，葡萄酒的标签被换掉，品酒专家就信以为真，将这种便宜的葡萄酒当作了一种顶级的葡萄酒。他们自这种产品而得的快乐并不是源于对酒根深蒂固的爱与欣赏—而是完全基于这样一个事实：有人告诉他们这种葡萄酒很好。坦白地讲，这要容易得多。

2 Some Mosquitoes Bite People Because Of Their Clothes

2 一些蚊子咬人是由于衣服的缘故

If you’ve ever been bitten by a mosquito, chances are someone nearby has given you a recycled explanation for why the insect decided to ruin your day. Maybe they said that you smelled good, or that you had a particular blood type, or maybe they just told you that your shirt makes you look like a victim. We’re not being facetious with that list, by the way—they’re all things that scientists believe can cause mosquitoes to find you more attractive.

如果你曾经被蚊子咬过，周围的人很可能会不断地向你解释蚊子为啥会毁掉你的一天。也许他们会说你太好闻了，或者说你有特殊的血型，又或者只告诉你说你的衬衫使你看起来更像被攻击的目标。对于以上所列的这些原因，我们绝对不是开玩笑，顺便说一句—科学家认为所有这些因素都会使你更招蚊子。

As a recent Smithsonian article details, 20 percent of people seem to be strangely attractive to mosquitoes, and no one is really in agreement as to why. The simple answer would appear to be that it’s something in a person’s blood that attracts mosquitoes. However, it would appear that the mosquitoes are actually attracted by a chemical signal given off by the body. It’s present in around 85 percent of us—which also explains why some people seem invisible to mosquitoes—and it indicates what your blood type is.

正如最近发表于《史密森学会会刊》（Smithsonian）上的一篇文章详述的那样，有20%的人似乎对蚊子很有吸引力，这很奇怪，至于原因，人们仍莫衷一是。最简单的答案似乎是一个人血液中的什么东西会吸引蚊子。不管怎样，看起来蚊子实际上是被人体所散发的某种化学信号吸引来的。我们当中85%的人都会散发这种化学信号—这也解释了为什么蚊子对有的人“视而不见”—而且这也会暗示你的血型类型。

Another, stranger theory is that mosquitoes are naturally attracted to darker, more vivid colors. In other words, it’s actually been theorized—and in some cases shown—that mosquitoes will bite people because they like their shirt.

另一种更奇怪的理论是蚊子天生会被更深，更鲜亮的颜色所吸引。换句话说，这实际上已经形成了理论—一些例子说明—蚊子会咬人是因为它们喜欢这些人的衬衫。

1 Rock-Paper-Scissors Is The Most Serious Game In The World

1 剪刀—石头—布是世界上最正经的游戏

Nothing could be simpler than a game of rock-paper-scissors; it’s the easiest way to decide any argument because it’s basically just random chance, right?

没有什么事儿比剪刀—石头—布这个游戏还要简单了；它是解决争论，作出决定最简单的方式，因为基本上来说它就是随机的，不是吗？

Well, not if the dozens of papers written about the subject are to be believed. The game has become a favorite research topic of psychologists because of how intertwined rock-paper-scissors is with subconscious human responses and game theory. As a result, dozens of strategies exist to help players get an edge in the game—including playing blindfolded to avoid being subconsciously influenced by an opponent’s body language.

哦，如果人们相信以此为主题写就的几十篇论文的话，那就没这么简单了。由于剪刀—石头—布和人潜意识的反应以及游戏理论紧密相关，这个游戏已经成为心理学家们热衷的研究主题。于是，研究发现了可以帮助选手取得优势的几十种策略—包括玩儿时蒙住眼睛，以避免潜意识里受到对手肢体语言的影响。